The Africa Digital Expo enters its second day in Cotonou on Tuesday. The 15th edition of the event opened the day before at the Golden Tulip Le Diplomate and runs until October 21 under the patronage of Benin’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and Innovation, a year after the previous edition in Douala. Policymakers, telecom operators, investors and innovators are meeting to discuss the continent’s digital transformation. The Benin Chamber of Commerce and Industry says representatives of several governments in the region, the International Telecommunication Union and the GSMA, the global mobile operators’ association, are expected to attend.
After an opening day devoted to welcoming participants and networking, the conferences begin today. The inaugural session focuses on the paths to digital maturity, followed by panels on infrastructure challenges and ways to finance the sector. On Wednesday, the final day, discussions will turn to incubators, technology adoption, partnerships with tech companies and how digital tools can create value in social sectors.
5G is at the heart of the debates. Its higher speeds and low latency open up opportunities for industry, health, education, agriculture and urban management. Large-scale rollout, however, depends on high-performance fibre networks, data centres, reliable power and heavy investment. Organisers also want to address the hurdles startups face, from limited access to capital and the cost of infrastructure to the difficulty of expanding into new markets, as well as the shortage of skills in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
The choice of Cotonou is no coincidence. Benin has become one of the continent’s major startup funding hubs this year. According to figures reported by TechCabal, the country attracted $345 million in the first nine months of 2026, placing it third behind Nigeria ($624 million) and Egypt ($396 million), and ahead of Kenya ($297 million) and South Africa ($279 million). Back in September, Financial Afrik had already reported, based on TCI Signals data, that Benin had overtaken Egypt and Kenya in this ranking. These figures should be read with some caution, though. Trackers do not all attribute large deals to the same country, and Africa: The Big Deal, for example, chose to classify electric mobility company Spiro, which raised $327 million in the first half, as a pan-African company. Across the continent, the trend is also towards fewer but larger deals, which does not necessarily make funding easier to obtain for most young companies.
Benin’s government is clearly betting on digital technology to drive growth. Projections backed by the GSMA and cited by the national digital agency ASIN estimate that digitalisation could add around CFA 1,200 billion (about $2.2 billion) to the country’s GDP by 2028 and create more than 300,000 jobs. Cotonou is lining up one tech event after another. The city will host the Cyber Africa Forum on November 16 and 17, followed by the AfriLabs Annual Gathering from November 18 to 20, which is expected to bring together more than 1,200 innovators, investors and policymakers.
The success of this edition will be judged mainly by the partnerships and investments it produces. For Benin, it is an opportunity to strengthen its position in the regional ecosystem and to show that its place in the funding rankings is more than a one-off.